I load for multiple pistol and rifle calibers to save some money, but also for the enjoyment. I know some folks view their time spent reloading as a necessary evil before shooting, but I like reloading almost as much as shooting. It's kind of like therapy for me. I can immerse myself in the process, and forget about most of the everyday problems and pressures while I'm working at the reloading bench. How about you?
Ever lose track of time and wind up with about five years' worth of ammo for sumpn? As in, a coupla thousand rounds of .45ACP and then go to messin' with 9mm?
didn't I just "see" you up in the Nature Photography forum? Seriously, it sounds like you zone out like I do when at the reloading bench. It's a great hobby, isn't it?
I keep running out of bullets!
8 pounds of powder will last a month or so.
cases last quite a while.
primers are cheap,but those bullet prices are killing me.
by far the most expensive part of this hobby,spent more on bullets than guns.
Reloading is a vicious circle.
Reload, shoot, clean guns.
Reload, shoot, clean guns.
Wait for payday to buy more supplies,
Reload, shoot, clean guns!
I load for 9mm, 38 spcl & 357mag, 45acp, 41mag, 30 carbine, 22 hornet, 25.06 & .270. Enjoy reloading almost as much as I do shooting, find it relaxing to set down at the bench and roll my own.
RIFLES
.50 BMG (28-30 rounds per pound of powder!)
.338 Winmag
.338-06 (A very under-rated cartridge)
.300 Weatherby
.30-06
.308
.30-30 (TC Contender also)
7.62x39
.270
.243
.220 Swift
.22-250
.223
.222 (TC Contender also)
HANDGUNS
.480 Ruger (All the big-bore boom you'll ever need)
.475 Linebaugh (OUCH! Why does this even exist?)
.45 Colt
.45 ACP
.44 mag
.44 special
.41 mag (Another very under-rated caliber)
.35 Remington (Contender)
.357
.38
.32 H&R mag
.32 ACP
.30 Carbine (Ruger Blackhawk)
.30 Herrett (Contender)
.30 Luger
9mm
.256 Winmag (Contender)
BLACK POWDER
.58
.54
.457 (Ruger Old Army, the only .457 caliber that I'm aware of)
.45
.44
.36
And more bullet moulds than I can remember right off... maybe 35 or so. I get just as much satisfaction from reloading and casting as I do shooting. Nothing like dropping a big ol' bull elk with a handload topped with a cast bullet or patched ball that you made yourself... except maybe doing it with a hand-made longbow, a hand carved-cured-straightened-fletched shaft, and a hand-knapped arrowhead.
(edit) Ya know, I managed to forget...
SHOTGUNS
12g (Lee Load-All. If you have nothing at all, this is better... barely)
.410 (MEC)
I'm an accuracy/rifle nut, so my reloads are done on a single stage Forster Co-Ax press. Trimming brass and neck turning seems to be endless, but worth it for the thrill of tiny groups. This is what I load for so far, for rifle
.223, 25-'06, 7.62x39, 7.5 Swiss, .308, 30-'06, 300 H&H Mag, 7.62x54 Russian, 8mm Mauser, .338 Lapua Mag, and 45-70
Soon hopefully I'll be adding a .222 Rem and a 6.5- probably 6.5-284.
In handguns I only have a few- my pistolero days are pretty much over if they ever were here to begin with, and I tend to collect in calibers I already have, anyway.
9mm, 10mm, 44 Mag
That's it. When I get tired of reloading, I a shoot black powder handgun or a rifle in .22
Well guys I'm one of those K.I.S.S. types tha generaly load for one gun to find that perfect cast, powder, primer, & brass combination. Besides I'm gun poor most the time anyway. My 480 Ruger is all the gun I need untill the next one. :wink:
Bob
The .480... YESSSS! Using a 400 grain Lee cast bullet and Hodgdon's Li'l Gun, this caliber can be easily pushed to .475 Linebaugh levels in the SRH. The SRH will handle standard pressure .475 loads, but is marginal for the proof loads, which is the biggest reason why it isn't chambered for .475. (the cylinder is long enough, barely) The Lee bullet has 2 crimp grooves and, when seated out to the lower one, the cartridge has the same case capacity as the .475. Li'l Gun has a lower pressure curve than comparable powders and is quite safe to load *well past* recommended maximums for the .480 when using the Lee bullet and lower crimp groove. Hopefully, after nearly 2 years, I'll be getting back to this project soon and will have more precise test data to report later this year.
Disclaimer: At this point, I am certainly not recommending that anyone else load their .480's past established, published maximum loads. You're on your own if you do. :shock:
Im reloading these days... finally got over the fear of blowing myself up...used to think it was alchemy.
Im using a single stage RCBS Rock Chucker that used to be my father inlaws and am now only reloading for my .44mag, .45acp and .45 colt. Ive done about 1800 rounds in the last 7 weeks and shot half of them so far with no mishaps, other than a empty wallet, ...whew thats alot of cranking.
A Rock Chucker is mandatory equipment on any reloaders bench. It's all I used for about a quarter century. I bought a Dillon 550 just before this fun & entertaining probation gig started so haven't had much time to play around with it yet.
I've loaded an assortment over the years (nuttin like jbars ) and now that I can't navigate rough ground I've settled down to .357, .44 Spec., and .45 Colt for my carry guns. I made two forays into the realm of the .219 Improved Zipper as my most exotic cartridge, once in 1958 with an Enfield action, unturned bull-barreled monstrosity mounted in a stock that looked like it had been cut from a railroad tie with a dull draw knife. It shot one-hole groups. The second was a Winchester Hi-Wall, built and stocked by Archie Stahl and his son. Absolutely beautiful, but not long enough in my possession. It would, in Archies' words "Kill a terrible groundhog, way way out there".
Shooting enables reloading, and the combination is a therapy which protects reason, caution and sanity. It hasn't kept me out of the hands of the chest cutters, but I do believe it has extended my time.
i've been rollin' my own since '72. love it. almost secondary to shooting, believe it or not. i load for:
.380 acp
9MM
.38 spl
.357 mag
.357 sig
.40 s&w
10MM
.44 mag
.45 acp
.223 rem
i cast most of my bullets, but i am buying more and more of the plated ones.
I have reloaded on and off for about 35 years with a 7 year break when I shot nothing but muzzle loaders and a few other breaks for lesser reasons. Now I am retired and can take some real time with the details. There have been a few surprise new developments though. I have a .444 Marlin and tried the Leverlution (sp?) rounds and decided I don't want to shoot anything else. Trouble is, Hornady said, on their website, they aren't going to sell bullets for reloading "for some time". So now I have some idle dies and brass. I really got hooked on Barnes bullets for my 30-06 and similar rounds but watch out. A lot of the bullets they put in production were superseded and are no longer available. So I bought a few hundred older ones, worked up a load only to find out I couldn't get any more. Oops. Another caution is not to buy any carbide dies. They will ruin you for anything else.
Archie Stahl you say Walosi? Haven't heard that name in a long time. He taught me too how to reload. Once you get started, you cant stop. Learned doing 348 winchester and doing 357 Herrett from him. It was in his shop I learned the saying "things go a lot quicker when you don't do it right" and seeing the Smith and Wesson Model 29 he had in the shop with an exploded cylinder, bent frame, and bulged barrel from where a bad reload was put through it. You remember that kind of stuff the rest of your life.
There are many that are still Stahl. My grandfather came in through San Francisco apparently (never could figure that out) and his name remained Stahl as does mine.
This is my first post and I thought I'd bring up this older thread and add my story. Back when I was a kid I remember helping my Dad and my bachelor uncle Johnny reload their rifle ammo. Johnny had a sporterized 03-A3 that he loaded for speed and accuracy. When I grew up and moved to Colorado he gave me the 06 with instructions to get a deer and an elk with it. When Johnny passed I was given my pick of one item in his sporting items and I requested his reloading equipment. What I got was a Lyman Tru-Line Jr. with an assortment of dies, a powder scale, and an assortment of other reloading tools that included some that were home built. I used that little press for several years to reload my hunting and plinking ammo in 30-06 and .243. When my son got old enough to hunt elk I gave him a .308 and found I could combine the .243 and 06 dies to reload the .308. Now I was reloading for him, too. When he got married and moved away I decided he needed his own reloading equipment. I ran into a Lyman S-T press with .308 dies and an assortment of reloading tools at a garage sale and bought it. As I got older I needed a lighter rifle and got a Browning BLR in .308. the .243 and son's .308 are also BLRs. The old Tru-Line Jr. is too light to case resize and I had been using fire formed cases with no problem but I soon found that my son's .308 fire formed cases would not fit in my .308. He gave me the heavier Lyman press and I started resizing the cases with it. Now I am the reloader for the family. Am I a reloading perfectionist? No. Have my reloads killed any animals? You bet.
For some reason Old Man Bo's post was marked as SPAM. I "approved" it and now it seems to be recognized and numbered. No idea why it required approval in the first place.
Thanks guys. You never know what goes on with automatic security software. Being a moderator of several groups I know about the vagaries encountered. Again, thanks for all your efforts.
Snake, not sure of the origin of you "handle" but I happen to have a year round cabin that becomes our hunting camp during big game season at the end of Rattle Snake Rock Road in the Colorado front range. The name has relevance in that when my son was a teenager he started catching rattlers with a forked stick and grabbing their tail and jerking their head off. He dried the skins and covered the walls of his room with them. Dad wasn't too pleased with his bravado but kids will be kids and he grew up to be an avid outdoorsman that is teaching his son to shoot and hunt.
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